


Power of Persuasion

by KagekaNecavi



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Dialogue Heavy, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 13:03:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17101097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagekaNecavi/pseuds/KagekaNecavi
Summary: When it’s decided in a planning meeting that it will benefit the Atlantis expedition to recruit Doctor Rodney McKay, John is sent to persuade him to join the SGC.





	Power of Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tillthewheelsfalloff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tillthewheelsfalloff/gifts).



> The summary makes it sound like things are gonna get a lot sexier than they are gonna get.
> 
> The NASA posters mentioned in the fic can be downloaded [here.](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/) I have a postcard of a couple of them that I got at an event with my local amateur astronomy club.
> 
> Now that this is no longer anonymous, I'd like to thank [Deca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kakushigo/works) from the SGA McShep discord for help figuring out the plot and [cloudyjenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyjenn/pseuds/cloudyjenn) for her very fast beta work. Thank you both very much!

John sat in the conference room with Dr. Weir, General O’Neill, Dr. Beckett, Dr. Zelenka, and Lt Colonel Carter, all of them flipping through files and trying to figure out who else was going to Atlantis.

“What about McKay?” Dr. Zelenka asked, gesturing with a folder. Carter immediately started to look irritated, but John didn’t recognize the name.

“Who? Is he one of the scientists at Area 51?” By now, John knew all the scientists there at the mountain, but the only ones from Area 51 he knew were the ones that had been at the mountain at one time or another.

“No.” Carter said, outright glaring at Zelenka.

“He’s an expert in renewable energy from Canada,” Weir said once it became clear no one else was going to explain, “I think his degrees are in astrophysics and some kind of engineering. The SGC has tried to recruit him several times, but he’s never been all that interested.”

“I have met him before. He would be interested if he knew we’re going to Pegasus.” Zelenka seemed pretty certain.

“He’s also an arrogant jackass,” Carter snapped.

“So I guess you don’t want to go try to recruit him again,” O’Neill asked, an amused glint in his eye but sounding perfectly dry.

“I swear to God, Jack, if you send me after him one more time I’m going to run away from home and retire on some nice planet where they’ll actually appreciate me.”

John arched an eyebrow. What could McKay have said to her that would be bad enough to make her react like that but not bad enough to eliminate him as a candidate?

“Ok then,” O’Neill said, “You want to go, Zelenka?”

“Are you joking? I have far too much work to do here while preparing for the mission,” Zelenka shook his head. O’Neill looked at Weir and Beckett, who shook their heads.

“What about me?” John asked. Since Sumner was the one who was actually going to be in charge - despite him making John go to meetings like this and basically do whatever he didn’t want to do himself - he probably had the time to go try to recruit some random scientist. And he’d probably be able to fly part of the way himself, and he’d not gotten to fly in long enough that it was making him itch.

Carter laughed a little, “Yeah you do that. Have fun, and when you come back make sure to tell me about how close you came to strangling him.”

That sounded like a challenge, and John was competitive enough that he decided then and there that he’d bring this McKay guy back just so he could be smug about it later.

 

* * *

 

Once John got to Vancouver and got checked into his hotel, he took some time to review McKay’s file and make sure he was familiar with the man before he tried to talk to him. Some of it was unsurprising - two degrees, exceptional intelligence, poor social skills likely due to having been so quickly advanced through school - but some of it was surprising. He’d apparently taken piano as a child and had also built a non-functional atomic bomb for a science fair, and had been investigated by the CIA. McKay had been under minor levels of surveillance ever since, his file getting updated periodically through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

He also reviewed the files of what he was and wasn’t allowed to tell McKay in order to try and recruit him, and before McKay signed an NDA. There was a little more than what he thought would be allowed in the ‘allowed to tell’ files, but the vast majority was filed under ‘not allowed’.

It was going to be harder than he thought to recruit McKay.

 

* * *

 

The next morning John headed to McKay Energy and managed to get through a lot of the security just by waving around his Air Force ID. That was convenient since he didn’t have an appointment with McKay, but it was vaguely concerning, too. It gave him the distinct impression that anyone with a shiny enough ID and a confident attitude could get in and see McKay. Not that McKay’s security issues were his problem, but still.

The real hurdle was McKay’s secretary. He tried flashing his ID and the young man, tried giving him his best ‘this is a matter of national security’ bit, even tried flirting a little. None of it worked, and the national security thing even got him a raised eyebrow and a dry, “National  _ Canadian _ security, sir?”

Finally he tried, “Just buzz him and tell him Sam Carter sent me.”

There was a glimmer of recognition in the young man’s face, but he still frowned. “Buzz him? Sir, no one uses intercoms like that anymore.”

“Then email him or message him or whatever you do to get your boss’ attention,” John said, smiling patiently. Inside he was thinking that this kid was a bit of a pedantic little shit, but that was probably what you wanted in a secretary if you valued your privacy.

“Fine, sir,” the receptionist said, and he tapped away very quickly on his computer. John had never been the best at typing, but once he’d become part of the SGC and had to type up some insane mission reports, he’d gotten better just by sheer necessity. But he wasn’t nearly as fast, and probably never would be, as the receptionist, and despite himself he was somewhat impressed.

After a long moment the door to McKay’s office flew open and he looked around, visibly annoyed when he saw John standing there.

“Go away,” he snapped, but before he could head back into the office John was there, sliding his foot in the way so that as McKay closed the door it wouldn’t actually close. McKay glared, “That’s nice and mature of you.”

“Carter did send me. Just let me in and listen to me, will you?” John asked, giving McKay a smile. He tried not to make it look forced, though he wasn’t sure how well it worked.

“You’re not at all convincing, you realize,” McKay said.

John shrugged. “I’m not at my best through a half closed door.”

“If I listen to you will you go away afterwards?”

“Yeah, sure,” John said, though it would depend on if he thought McKay actually was listening to him.

McKay sighed and opened the door, letting John in. The office was sort of bare as John glanced around. There was one of those NASA fake travel posters on one wall and some art that looked like an interior designer picked it, but absolutely no photos of anything personal, or anything aside from the tricked out computer rig that looked like McKay had picked it himself.

“Let me guess,” McKay said once the door was closed, “you want to recruit me to some super secret government project. Everything I invent while I’m part of the project will go to the project, I’ll never see the light of day because I’ll be in your super secret government bunker somewhere, my research won’t be declassified until 50 years after I’m dead, and I’ll probably die horribly from some weird experiment gone wrong.”

“Wow, aren’t you a ray of sunshine,” The words were out of John’s mouth before he really knew what he was saying. He regretted it for a moment and then McKay laughed a little.

“Yes, I’ve been told I’m the world’s biggest pessimist. But I’m not wrong, am I?”

“You are. About some of it, at least,” John shrugged and sat down in one of the chairs in front of McKay’s desk.

McKay’s eyes narrowed a little. “Which parts?”

“Well, I honestly don’t know what they’re going to write into your contract as far as your discoveries and inventions, you’ll see the light of day plenty unless you decide to stay in your labs for days on end, your research probably won’t be declassified for a long time, and there’s no telling what might or might not kill you,” John flashed McKay a wicked grin. They seemed to be establishing a bit of a rapport, and he wanted to play off of that rather than going off the typical pitch. “Also, we might have to let Sam Carter tase you if you hit on her too much.” Sam hadn’t said what about McKay irritated her so much, so that was a total guess. But then McKay winced, and John knew he’d hit the mark.

“How much are you all gonna pay me?” McKay asked, gesturing around the office, “I’m doing very well for myself in my chosen field. I make probably more than your government could afford.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But if you were in this for the money you’d get into fossil fuels.” McKay looked a little startled, like maybe no one had ever pointed that out to him before, or had been that insightful as to realize he wasn’t exactly in it for the money, and so John continued, “Besides, it’s not like getting involved in our project is going to stop any money from your company coming in.”

“You’ve got a point there,” McKay said, “But you stopped that train of thought a little soon. If I’m not in it for the money then what else might I be getting into it for?”

“I bet you’re going to tell me, even if I guess it.”

“You bet right - I got into it for the science. Which brings me to my next issue. I want my discoveries to remain my discoveries.”

“Like I said, I have no idea what sort of contract they’ll ask you to sign about the science,” John said with a shrug, “but I can tell you that you’d be on the absolute cutting edge. You’d have access to things only a few hundred other people have access to, and most of those not in your field.”

That appeared to tempt McKay greatly, but after a long moment he shook his head. “And yet I’d be unable to share any of those discoveries with the rest of the world.”

“Maybe. Or the program could be declassified within the next five years. That sort of decision is above my pay grade. But I do know that once it is declassified, your discoveries would be taught in grade school science textbooks, but likely not understood until the college level.”

“I - can’t you tell me any more than that?” McKay asked. He seemed vaguely torn.

“No,” John shook his head, “not until you sign the non-disclosure agreement. Which doesn’t mean you are agreeing to work with us, just that you agree not to tell anyone about the details of the program under penalty of imprisonment.”

“When Carter came and talked to me, she seemed to be certain that once I signed the agreement, I’d end up working for your program,” McKay said.

“I am, too.”

“Why? You don’t know me.”

John stood and walked over to the poster on the wall. The one really personal thing in the entire room, aside from McKay’s computer rig. After a moment he tapped it and said, “This. This says to me that you’re curious and you want to know what else is going on in the universe. Your degrees are in engineering and astrophysics, which says the same thing to me. You want to understand the universe in which we live. You’re curious, you want to know, but for whatever reason you’re letting fear hold you back.”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because McKay bristled, annoyed. “I’m not a coward.”

“I didn’t say that,” John said, “I just said that in this instance you are letting your fear get the best of you. It’s not cowardace to feel fear. Just to let it rule you.”

“I can’t decide this now,” McKay said eventually.

“That’s fine. I can leave you my card and you can get back to me,” John reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card. He didn’t have many of them - didn’t need many - but he had a few. It had his email address and the phone number of his Air Force issued cell phone. “Call me when you make a decision.”

McKay nodded. He looked thoughtful, and John had a feeling that he knew which way he’d go, but there was a chance that McKay would surprise him. He wanted to leave McKay with something to think about, and after a moment he tapped on the poster again.

“Did you ever want to be an astronaut when you were a kid?”

“What?” McKay looked up at John, frowning a bit. He’d clearly been thinking hard, and hadn’t quite followed the change in subject. “Of course. Who didn’t? But when you’re an out of shape geek like me they don’t let you get into space.”

“You don’t look that out of shape to me,” John said, “and I think you’d be surprised at where they geeks like you go.” That was skirting the edges of what John could and couldn’t say. Well, probably trampling the edges. But he knew he needed to say something else, something more, to get McKay to agree.

With that, John left and headed back to his hotel.

 

* * *

 

Standing at the base of the ramp heading up to the Stargate, Atlantis on the other side of the wormhole, John glanced over at Rodney and grinned. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m glad you very nearly violated the non-disclosure agreement in my office,” Rodney said and hiked the pack up a little higher on his back. John chuckled and gave Rodney a little nudge. Rodney grinned back at him, a grin that seemed to promise mischief and one that John had seen several times in the weeks since Rodney had been recruited.

Before John could say anything else they got the go-ahead to head through the Stargate and so they headed up the ramp and through the gate to Atlantis.


End file.
